Your alternative source for digital marketing news

Welcome to our Monday edition of our 5:5 digital marketing news stories, as usual, we have hand picked our favourite stories to share with you all. Today we look at an array of stories from Pinterest and Facebook take big data to another level to Reddit axing shadowbans. As we always say, there’s never a dull moment in the world of digital marketing!

Pinterest and Facebook take big data to another level

Here at The Digital Marketing Bureau we find big data fascinating and as Forbes quite rightly points out it is a critical cornerstone of most social media businesses.

Social pinning site Pinterest has taken big data to another level. Pinterest recently revealed their new visual search feature; in layman’s terms, a search tool that allows pinners to select a portion of an image and then look for similar pins on the site.

This new feature uses deep machine learning which Pinterest have collaborated with Berkeley Vision and Learning Center. The collaboration has helped Pinterest create a data set of billions of pins which helps identify and match similar images in search.

Moving on to Facebook, the social media giant has added a new feature to its messaging app that will look at camera roll from your mobile phone and see if you have snapped any photos of your Facebook friends and will then prompt you to share your photos with them.

Mark Zuckerberg’s company have mentioned that they are solving an issue in the digital age, that issue being that you have multiple photos of your friends on your phone but haven’t had the chance to share them directly with them.

Using a facial recognition algorithm, Facebook hope to eradicate this problem. If this algorithm freaks you out a bit, Facebook have said that users can opt out of facial recognition. Users have to opt in to use the new photo magic feature in order to receive notifications on the images that they wish to share.

Google Offering Free Hangout Calls To France

After the world witnessed those appalling scenes in Paris last Friday evening, Google wants to help you contact your loved ones who live in France.

Originally announced via a Google Plus post, Google has made all calls to France via its Hangout app free to use.

As you can see from the post link, it does not mention the specified countries from which it is free of charge to call France, so one would assume that callers can contact France from anywhere in the world using both the iOS and Android apps respectively.

Bing Launches Mobile-Friendly Testing Tool

Last week Bing announced its mobile-friendly testing tool, back in May they mentioned they were working on amobile friendly algorithm and was meant to be launched in the summer but was delayed according to Search Engine Land.

So what does the tool do exactly? The tool looks at the width of page content, evaluates the readability of text on the page, looks at spacing of links and other elements, searches for incompatible plug-ins, and checks the viewpoint of a page.

The search company has not announced the launch just yet of their mobile algorithm, however, again, using Search Engine Land as a source, they mention it might be soon.

If you would like to use their mobile-friendly testing tool click here.

Tumblr Launches Messaging Feature

Blogging platform Tumblr has launched its very own messaging feature for both iOS and Android apps and desktop version.

Not all Tumblr uses will have the messaging feature as it has been a staged rollout. Only users who have a smiley balloon on their screens will be able to access the messaging feature.

If you are a Tumblr user, it is worth noting that unlike the ask feature, threaded messages cannot be made anonymously, although only information the other user shares about themselves on their page will be available according to The Drum.

Tumblr have mentioned that their messaging feature is the only beginning of its plans around instant communication. In the future the blogging platform wants to add a support function where users can message about their technical issues such as GIF and video support.

Reddit Axes Shadowbans, Replaced With Account Suspensions

Steve Huffman the returning co-founder of Reddit detailed some changes that would be coming to the community site in an AMA(Ask Me Anything).

One change in particular that stood out was to replace shadowbans with account suspensions.

If you are not familiar with Reddit, a shadowban in a nutshell is a tool that bans when they are caught on breaking rules. Their subreddit content and user profile page only become visible to them when they log into their Reddit account. Nobody else will be able to see their content under a shadowban.

If you do use Reddit and are curious about how they work (and to find out if you have been shadowbanned for whatever reason) visit the shadowban subreddit (/r/shadowban/) and submit text saying “Am I shadowbanned?” A bot will respond back to you with a either a true or false marker.

Last week Reddit stated that they will be axing shadowbans and instead will be suspended accounts. So how does this work? Reddit suspensions can only be applied to accounts by admins and not moderators. In addition, Reddit users who have had their accounts suspended will receive a notification which will include the reason for being suspended and the duration of the suspension. Furthermore, suspended users can appeal by messaging back the private message. Suspensions can be temporary or permanent, they depend on the severity of their rule break and if they have had any past suspensions.

What Are Your Thoughts?

Which story has interested you from today’s 5:5 digital marketing news round-up? What type of stories would you like us to feature in future editions? As always, we would love to hear from you, feel free to comment via our Facebookand Google Plus pages. If you prefer to tweet us, you can tweet James, Mark, and myself (David Dhannoo) directly. Have a great week everyone! 😄